"I also had about 5000 unread emails - what with that and Facebook and letters there are a lot of different mediums for people to reach you on, and they expect a response."
He said he would be closing the office for a week next week to spend time with the family, and to give the office staff a break.
Ikaroa-Rawhiti Labour MP Meka Whaitiri also increased her majority over Maori Party candidate Marama Fox from 3796 votes to 4210 with special votes included.
Ms Whaitiri said she was pleased to have further cemented her support in the electorate, work for which had not stopped since her election-day win, and in the current hiatus until a new Government was formed.
"Maori politics does not stop - everyone is asking what will happen, but that's up to Winston."
The shine of her election-night victory was dimmed somewhat with the death of her uncle that morning, and on Thursday last week another uncle, Lewis (Sonny) Moeau, a noted figure in Maoridom and Labour Party politics, died after a short illness.
As well as family business, over the past two weeks she had attended the Maori Women's Welfare League conference in New Plymouth and St Joseph's Maori Girls College's 150th anniversary celebrations.
With such a large electorate to cover, she said she intended to put more focus on her health and wellbeing in the coming term to help combat the rigours of the job.
With the special votes counted, Wairarapa National MP Alastair Scott widened his lead over Labour candidate Kieran McAnulty to 2872 votes (2746 on election night) and said he had spent the past couple of weeks regrouping after the campaign, while "waiting patiently" for Mr Peters' decision.
"I am getting fitter, trying to get in some golf, and getting some bike riding in ahead of an event I'm taking part in in December," Mr Scott said.
In addition, he said, he had been tidying up a couple of member's bill ideas he had been working on and intended to present to Parliament in the weeks ahead.
He said he was not worried about which way Mr Peters would go.
"There will no doubt be some people who will not like whatever the arrangement is, but there's nothing much we can do about it so I am not worrying too much."
In the Tukituki electorate, National MP Lawrence Yule also increased his majority against Labour candidate Anna Lorck, with a final difference of 2813 votes between them, compared with 2757 on election night.
Mr Yule said he had spent much of the past two weeks in Wellington with the other newly elected MPs completing an induction programme learning how Parliament worked, including engaging in a mock debate, digesting technical information about legislation and the rights of the executive, and sorting out staffing for the Wellington office.
"It's been busy, but we won't be called back now until decisions have been made around a coalition."
As a backbench MP he said that decision was not hugely significant for him, but he noted that although a coalition could be announced by the end of this week, it could take years for the participants to get any legislative positions though Parliament.
Aside from the major parties the biggest leap after the special vote tally was for Wairarapa New Zealand First candidate Ron Mark, who gained 670 votes on his election-night count.
To a lesser extent, the Green Party candidates made similar increases across all electorates.
Ikaroa-Rawhiti candidate Elizabeth Kerekere's final vote tally was 1924, an increase of 385 votes from election night, Napier candidate Damon Rusden's votes increased from 1109 to 1386, Tukituki candidate Chris Perley secured 373 additional votes, and Wairarapa candidate John Hart reached 1683, up from 1352.
NZ First Tukituki candidate Joe Kairau's result improved from 1789 votes on election night to 2027 votes.
